My Twin Boys - Feeding Frenzy and the Epiphany

My twin sons, Noah and Benjamin, were born on 7/27/09, Noah being the first (by a minute) and the bigger at 5.7 lbs, while Ben was born at 4.14 lbs. Ironically, Ben went right up to the nursery, eating like a horse and burping like.... well, like his dad... Noah had to spend 3 days in the NICU for monitoring, as his blood-sugars weren't where they were supposed to be. After 3 long days, the boys were reunited!

After 2 weeks at home with the boys, and no more 24 hour help around, it hit home pretty hard that these 2 guys completely depended on us to care for them, no matter what! So, the feeding frenzy began and hasn't quite ended. Working out a schedule with my wife proved to be far more difficult than I imagined. Feeding both at the same time, while essential in keeping as "normal" a routine as possible without having one long, constant feeding, is more difficult than it seemed. After the 1 hour mark of a single feeding, while the little ones took turns falling asleep in mid-feed or just being uncooperative, one can lose one's train of thought, and one's mind, very easily...

Even when my wife and I fed them together, taking one each, it was still quite difficult, as the feeding still often took over an hour to complete. Once the feedings were done, we had possibly an hour or so of quiet time before the next feeding began. Quiet time never seemed to go as smoothly as we'd hoped...

With my sanity and my marriage in utter dismay, we got a visit from an unlikely short, petite, Russian brown-haired girl. An experienced speech therapist who also consults on infant feedings, came by and heard our story. She suggested a few things, but the epiphany came when she uttered the 3 most beautiful words I had heard in 6 weeks - "try bigger nipples!" Although this might sound somewhat controversial, to use level 3 nipples on 6 week old infants, I was desperate and needed to try something... Considering we have been putting a little rice cereal in the boys' formula (a recommendation our doctor made to alter the consistency and help keep the formula down), the bigger nipple idea seemed to make more and more sense. I instantly went right over to the nearest Babies R' Us (a place I'm beginning to call my second home) and purchased 3 packs of level 3 nipples. That very night, with Noah in my arms and Ben with my wife, the boys downed about 3.5 ounces of formula with rice cereal, let out a burp that sounded more like a Mozart symphony to my ears and went quietly into a deep sleep, laying in their cribs like 2 peas in a pod, all in under 35 minutes. Alas! the day is saved!

With time to spare, my wife and I gaze at each other with an indescribable look of joyous insanity, with a hint of skepticism, as sometimes things are too good to be true. However, 3 feedings later, this new scheme seems to be the answer (I'm knocking on wood). Who knows, maybe tonight, we'll even watch an entire movie together....